Research Log #12 – Introducing the Team: Traincraft Published on March 1, 2019 by Traincraft.

This week has been rather slow. The team was incomplete the whole week and we spent half the week on writing a business plan, as it’s a requirement from the institute we are currently funded by.

However, we did start to implement the UI concepts from last week into the game. Check them out if you haven’t seen them already! Here another sneak peek on what we’re working on.

The main menu of Bio Colonies displaying the logo, multiple buttons for starting a game, social media links, and a blurry background with organismic splats.
The main menu for the public alpha demo. The colored splats in the background are going to be animated.

So, we’ll take this opportunity to introduce our next team member: Traincraft.

Team Introduction – Traincraft

Hello! It’s me, Traincraft!
I’m a Gameplay and Core Developer and the Marketing Officer at DragonOverflow Studio.

Background

Currently, I’m 22, live in Klagenfurt/Austria, and have a passion for gaming, astrophysics, and religion. Together with Zeknir, I left the secondary technical college 1 1/2 years ago. After the 9 months of alternative civilian service, we started this awesome journey called DragonOverflow Studio and Bio Colonies.

Introduction to Gaming

My first contact with games was thanks to my dad. He mostly played The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past on the SNES. My first own console, or better, handheld, was the GameBoy Advance. With this awesome piece of hardware, I found the love of my childhood: Pokémon.

In middle school, I got my very first laptop and from this point, I was a PC Gamer. The Settlers 5: Heritage of Kings was my first RTS game and I loved it from the first hour. Over the years, I spend hundreds of hours in games like Minecraft and especially World of Warcraft.

Why Game Development

The answer is very simple: I like to put my ideas into games. I started to watch videos about game development (in Unity) on YouTube and got most of my knowledge from that. Combined with my education in school, I’ve gained enough skills to create our first game. Together with Zeknir, we participated in two Ludum Dares with our games A World in a Jar and Orbiting Home.

A game displaying multiple flowers with descriptions and instructions in a book.
A screenshot of “A World in a Jar”, one of our Ludum Dare projects.

What am I doing

As I already said, I am a Gameplay and Core Developer for Bio Colonies. This translates to coding and implementing many systems, and later on, merging them so they work together. Also, I would say that I am the Jack of all Trades of the team.

Next Steps

Next week, we’ll continue with the implementation of the UI parts to make them a reality. Expect some details on the concept behind the implementation and what Framework we’re using to build it in the next Research Log. Also, follow us on Twitter for more updates!

See ya next week!